Mirage

Contents

Mirage is primarily a wandering group of swordsmen in the Propella universe, nomadic in nature, often separated and exploring various states in search of knowledge. Members of Mirage (also known as The Unseen) primarily travel undetected, and they have established a reputation for being the most skilled fighters and mercenaries in the entire IEU - in fact, the most expensive; the average cost of hiring an Unseen to take down a target could is only comparable to that of producing a fighter jet.

It is currently unclear as to whether Mirage does possess a central headquarters for training, but each Unseen is trained in scripture, cartography, survival skills, espionage, reconnaissance, basic magical arts, and most importantly, swordplay. Each Unseen also possesses a blade of his own, each imbued with special properties that make the Unseen so dangerous in combat.

Their travel patterns are erratic, and Unseen can travel in small groups or individually, although most prefer to travel in pairs. As their name suggests, they can be very difficult to discern from the average citizen when fully acclimatized to the region, which can take as little as 5 minutes of reconnaissance. Sightings are few, and they perform their job with as little collateral damage as possible.

Mirage also performs regular checks on its members, and members associated with misdemeanour are forcefully expelled from the group, with their sponsored possessions taken, a Level 4 Magic Seal placed on them, and their trueforged blades broken so as to minimize the damage they are capable of doing.

Always travelling in the company of his apprentice Trygve Halbayr Ostermann, Ljudnir is a master swordsman; if anything he is the most skilled Unseen in the whole of Mirage. Given his large stature, he is extremely resistant against any form of physical blow directed at him, yet is fast enough to deliver painful strikes to the enemy.

His most commonly used weapon is a small machete with no magical powers whatsoever, used against enemies who are deemed "unworthy" - more importantly this weapon is concealable. Often he uses this weapon to train Trygve in combat for fear of incapacitating him with his true sword.

His true sword, the Event Horizon, is a cursed bastard sword with a blackish aura. Ljudnir usually keeps this sword encased in a massive lead casing, which he carries around effortlessly on his back. Unsheathed, however, this sword is powerful enough to slice through concrete without activating its abilities - the sword was enchanted in 99.999% Propella and vanadium. The sword's innate ability is to generate black holes at will; obliterating anything in its wake save for the wielder and the blade. It is for this very reason that Ljudnir almost never unsheathes the sword given its destructive potential - he only uses it in the face of world threats.

Always travelling in the company of his master Ljudnir Brzeska, Trygve has learnt much in his company, and is an adept fighter for Mirage. Their tasks primarily include assassination and reconnaissance, although Trygve is capable of virtually any task as an Unseen.

Trygve's blade, Zeitlosengeist, an ornately decorated longsword, makes him hard to track, and even harder to kill. While the sword is a true-forged sword (i.e. not made through magic), the blade can be commanded to appear and disappear at will - the blade momentarily disappears into a fine dust. While in this form, Trygve can command it to travel to any location desired through magical concentration; but more importantly he can control the concentration of the dust as it travels - at its lowest, dispersed form, it mainly causes small cuts to the skin, but highly concentrated dust can slice through any object it travels through. This way, Trygve can also remotely control the blade's movement - provided he has a clear visualization of the target and the route to the target.

This young Serbian girl, a new addition to the Unseen, prefers to travel alone, making her virtually untrackable even among the Unseen. Often she wanders big cities, making sociological observations and addendums to the Unseens' maps, or functioning as a one-woman reconnaissance squad.

Sansa is agile and fast, capable of dealing mortal blows at superhuman speed with her own mixed martial art style combining capoeira, savate and taichi. Sansa's blade is the enchanted tachi named Sokushi (即死). Despite its length and durability, Sokushi is so light it is of almost negligible weight, thus allowing for attacks to be performed at superhuman speeds, yet retaining the sharpness and durability of ordinarily swords. This allows Sansa to cleanly cut through a human despite the small size of Sokushi.

One of the four members in the largest travelling Unseen group, Kikuchi Hanzou is a reliable cartographer and navigator more than anything else. He studies the geography of the world with ease, to the point where he can determine soil composition and climate of the surroundings through observation alone. He is the prime cartographer for Mirage, and often he is deployed to uncharted territories.

Hanzou primarily uses dual machine pistols in combat, although he does possess the magical blade Bunkatsuchi (分割地), which can deform the earth or any surface it contacts into a mass of spikes, controllable at will and irreversibly destructive. Hanzou's extreme agility and balance also allows him to fight effectively in ragged conditions such as spiked environments, further granting him an upper hand over opponents.

One of the four members in the largest travelling Unseen group, Carlin Abelshauser is physically well-built, and the oldest Unseen at the age of 62. In spite of this, however, Carlin is the group's primary intel officer and guardian, and acts as a mentor to most of the group.

His weapon is the highly dangerous Kolossalenklinge, one of the few saijō ōwazamono still existent in the Propella universe. With this glaive, Carlin can disintegrate objects on a molecular level, allowing him to theoratically cut through any known material, even seemingly impervious weapons such as the sword Bellator.

Molecular Guillotine: Carlin's most used slash generates a destructive field in its wake up to 50 meters away, disintegrating anything it comes into contact with, or at least slicing them cleanly in half.

Molecular Harpoon: By thrusting the air with the weapon, Carlin can create a 'harpoon' of pure energy that spears through and destroys anything in its wake. This attack is more precise than the Molecular Guillotine, and it causes far less collateral damage.

Molecular Rift: Carlin can also simulate a black hole by generating a powerful vacuum through tearing and forcibly separating the molecules of the air around him, thus drawing all objects into a temporal vacuum.

One of the four members in the largest travelling Unseen group, and younger sister to weaponologist Sean Arpiers, Evangeline is a specially-trained PSI soldier who was injected with Propella at birth to enhance her psionic abilities. She acts as the group's telepath and intel gatherer.

Her main ability involves mentally deconstructing a weapon's functionality with her thoughts, and just granting her vision of the target's weapon allows her to comprehend its function and magical abilities. This also extends to individuals and their magical potencies, where Evangeline expands slightly more effort into comprehending her opponent's own magical or psionic capabilities. However, she is not capable of replicating these abilities; only identifying them.

Evangeline prefers to stay out of combat, letting her teammates do the fighting. Her weapon is the deceptively plain Reinhardt, a custom-forged wakizashi that is used defensively rather than offensively. When the blade makes contact with another blade, it delivers small, but potent electrical shocks directly to the offending holder's pressure points, allowing her to paralyze attacking opponents should they make the mistake of attacking her.

One of the four members in the largest travelling Unseen group, Telos is the group's spellcaster, having a strong mastery over 10 different schools of magic. He primarily specializes in taking out enemy spellcasters or non-physical attackers with ease, as his countermagic capabilities far surpass any others in the lands.

Telos' main spellcasting style is known as countermagic, which he developed to rapidly counter any incoming spell effect given his immense mastery over magical semantics and different schools of magic. With the exception of extraworldly magic, Telos can often counter a spell defensively in a split second, and instantaneously open up a window for attack. He does not have a preferred school of magic in battle, although given the nature of enemy spellcasters, Telos usually counters with elemental or kinetic spells.

Telos' weapon is rarely used in battle except against the strongest of spellcasters - the scimitar Antioch is capable of nullifying any effects from Propella, including magical effects, rendering even the strongest spellcasters impotent with a simple, non-lethal slash. While this effect is temporary, Telos can use this to effectively deal a finishing blow with his spells. Moreover, should this weapon be used against him, Telos can disintegrate and reassemble his Propella-enhanced body to refresh his magical capabilities.

Marcus Mandelbrot is one of the two Unseen who have not been known to exist except from testimonials from actual Unseen members. According to Unseen Evangeline Arpiers, Marcus is the 'executioner' of Mirage, who is only mobilized into action when a rogue member is found. In the event that the offending ex-member continues to commit crimes against humanity, Marcus is tasked to execute them. Marcus' physical stature is unknown, however he is known to be one of the highest-ranked Unseen in Mirage.

Marcus' blade is the Xipe-Totec, of which its form is unknown except to those that have been exiled. The blade is known to be extremely heavy, and perfect for breaking apart trueforged magical swords at its core, as well as causing irreparable damage through pure explosive force. The blade can also be used in combat to cause maximum destruction, however Marcus opts not to given the immensely heavy nature of the blade. It is for this reason that Marcus does not usually enter combat.

Jared A. G. Kuiper is one of the two Unseen who have not been known to exist except from testimonials from actual Unseen members. According to Unseen Evangeline Arpiers, Jared is Marcus Mandelbrot's direct subordinate, who tracks down rogue Unseen so that Marcus can deliver any necessary punishments to them, and to incapacitate them to allow Marcus to deliver the killing blow. Jared is also tasked to take out particularly bothersome targets that most Unseen are incapable of killing - as such, he is one of the most respected swordsmen in Mirage.

Jared's blade is the shortsword Impedimenta, which works perfectly with his function as it allows him to actively control cast-iron chains of varying thicknesses against opponents up to 20m away. The thinnest chains can rapidly disarm an opponent, while the thickest can pin them to the ground and suffocate them. Jared's chains are also Level 5 Magical Seals, nullifying all but the most potent of magical effects.

The founder of Mirage, Walter Bentham Harthall intended to create a transnational, vigilante organization against any potential threats to mankind, gathering the finest swordsmen together to prevent them from being used against humanity, as well as acting as a strong task force to ensure peace between nations. To this day, Mirage has served its purpose, and although we know Walter as the founder of Mirage, it is unclear as to when Mirage was founded, or when Walter had lived. Records show, however, that Walter is currently deceased.

Walter was not a swordsman or magical caster, and had little innate abilities. He also possessed no trueforged sword.

Perhaps one of the most widely-known Unseen in the world, Benedict Percival Mulberry Thorton became notorious for leaving Mirage after a dispute with several of the members, before killing them and stealing their trueforged blades. As such, Benedict is now in possession of four blades, although it is unclear of the original owners of the blades.

Given his capability to brutally murder four well-trained Unseen (even possibly at once), Benedict is a highly skilled swordsman, and very difficult to track in spite of the bounty placed on him by Mirage. Benedict is also a capable martial artist and spellcaster, and it is possible that he can take on at least 4 Unseen at the same time with ease. Rumors have also stated that the cost of hiring Benedict, on average, is $3,150,000,000.

First Trueforged: This blade is currently destroyed following his removal from Mirage, however it is known that Benedict's first trueforged blade has no name, and is capable of concentrating all surrounding energy into lethal concentric strikes.

El Diablo: One of the four blades stolen by Benedict after murdering their owners, and by far the most powerful, El Diablo is a saber that leaves residual black slashes in its wake when slashing. Each of these black slashes comprises pure energy, and is sharp enough to cleanly slice most manmade objects in two.

Phantom: One of the four blades stolen by Benedict after murdering their owners, Phantom is a katana that is capable of phasing through most objects, making it virtually unguardable except at the hilt or by manipulating Benedict's hands. This allows him to phase through a target's blade and strike their body directly.

Balantino: One of the four blades stolen by Benedict after murdering their owners, Balantino is the defensive blade used to block incoming, deadly slashes. Balantino's molecular structure is peculiar in that the blade feels solid, albeit existing in a technically gaseous state. This non-Newtonian application of force allows Balantino to absorb incoming force, although it is unclear whether the force can be redistributed in its next slash, or is dispersed to the surroundings.

Sabin Satyr: One of the four blades stolen by Benedict after murdering their owners, Sabin Satyr is a seemingly harmless onyx dagger that is capable of replicating itself using shadow replication magic to create dark energy copies of itself which can be transported around at will. Each replica dagger is hard enough to pierce through thin lead plates.